Southern California -- this just in

Manhattan Beach man arrested after offering cash for urine in school bathroom

February 10, 2010 | 11:53
am

An 18-year-old Manhattan Beach man was arrested at Pacific Elementary School on Monday after reports surfaced Friday that he had offered to pay a third-grader for his urine.

Kevin Manuel Duron was taken into custody after reappearing at the elementary school Monday, said Manhattan Beach Police Det. Sgt. Brian Brown.

Duron allegedly entered a boys bathroom on the campus and offered to pay one boy several dollars to urinate into a cup, Brown said.

When he failed to persuade him, police said, he apparently returned for a second try.

Brown said he was struck by the Mira Costa High School graduate's persistence: "I would not have anticipated that he would have gone back again."

Duron might have been collecting the urine to use to pass a drug test, authorities said.

One of the students solicited late last week told a parent, who alerted school officials, who then notified police. When Duron returned to campus Monday, a school employee spotted him and alerted school authorities.

Although originally arrested on suspicion of annoying or molesting a child, the Los Angeles district attorney reduced the severity of the charges to two counts of failing to register with a school office before entering school grounds. He was scheduled to be arraigned in a Torrance courthouse Wednesday.

"These days, nothing surprises me, but it was very unusual case," Brown said. "Soliciting [urine] at an elementary school is a new one to me."

A spokeswoman for the Manhattan Beach Unified School District said this had never happened before and that school officials followed protocol to notify authorities.